 Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review, your source for everything One Piece. Today we have a manga review of chapter 923, Emperor Kaido vs Luffy. And look, I have to say that One Piece has had a fantastic run over the last two decades, but all good things must come to an end. And with the sudden and unexpected demise of series protagonist Monkey D. Luffy this week, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Oda for all that he has given us. But seriously though, this chapter was, uh, appropriately brutal. Last week I went into some detail about how Luffy's strike on the final page was very intentionally made to look like absolutely nothing due to it missing a lot of the standard Oda details. Entirely intentional because I believe it was meant to portray just how ineffective Luffy's current abilities are against Kaido. But this week we have a very similar ending just reversed. The final two page spread is crowned with Kaido performing an attack on Luffy that honestly looks just as ineffective as Luffy's attack did. It's a very simple swing with no spiky impact bubble or emphasis on the hit whatsoever really. It's kind of just a mundane panel for One Piece, especially considering that Luffy is facing off against a Yonko, but once again that is entirely intentional. It's showing that this basic boring hit is enough to KO Luffy even in Gear 4th form. Kaido isn't even trying, which is a brilliant contrast to how the last chapter ended with Luffy seriously trying to harm Kaido and being more or less completely ineffectual. Furthermore, we really did go through the motions this week by showcasing an elephant gatling gun, which actually looked really cool, before launching immediately into a Gear 4th Kong organ. Although I do wish that Luffy had gone even further and whipped out the King Kong punch, so that there would be no question whatsoever surrounding the respective levels of Luffy and Kaido. But something to think about is that Kaido was arguably in his weakest state he will ever be in due to being highly intoxicated, further showing that we will not be able to rely on that as a particular weakness, especially with the insane sobering up speed. Also I don't know if this was simply due to the fact that he was drunk, but Kaido actually seems a lot stronger in his humanoid form than he does in his dragon form to me. Once again it may just be the alcohol not allowing him to properly access his full faculties, but I think this chapter quite wonderfully displayed the weakness of the dragon form, which is the sheer surface area available for Kaido's opponents to strike. Plus in his gigantic dragon form he also seems less able to keep track of what's happening around him. So yeah, I'd be pretty keen to see what the dragon can do in a more sober state, but it seems like he would be far less capable of precise movement and that it's more suited towards general destruction rather than one-on-one combat. Now as for Luffy's complete and utter defeat, I find this turn of events to be, well, exactly what was expected, but it's also quite promising for the future of the arc. Although I will say that if this were any other shonen I'd be very, very concerned because the main character being one hit Kaido'd plotline has a very standard flow of events from this stage. Essentially the main character then needs to train to become strong, a choir's godlike strength usually through some kind of transformation and breaks the series with their newfound power. I don't think that one piece is going to do this, and I feel like that's what Oda's trying to flag, by having Luffy convincingly defeated one-on-one so early in the arc. I don't think that Wano is going to be like anything we've seen before, and Kaido is going to need to be taken down in a very unique way. Now there are still going to be lots of people defending the shonen standard and saying that well Luffy lost to Crocodile multiple times before overcoming him, and that's true, but that was purely because Luffy could not hit him. Crocodile never possessed the strength, speed, stamina or durability to ever be capable of really facing off against Luffy in the long run, but here Luffy is outclassed in every single attribute, and that's very exciting because Luffy has almost never had to deal with the idea of defeating someone physically stronger than him. I say almost because you can make the argument that Karakuri was stronger than Luffy, but let's not go down that road, because Luffy proved overwhelming regardless, and yes Luffy has gone up against people stronger than himself like Big Mom or the admirals, but the purpose of their conflicts was not to defeat them. Kaido is a very very different story, he needs to go down, but strength isn't everything and I'm very excited by the prospect of showing that off, and having to defeat an impossibly powerful enemy via a more emphasized use of tactics rather than to just keep punching them until they stop getting up. Or perhaps we could go down an even more obscure route of dealing with the overpowered villain, like something akin to Meruem in Hunter x Hunter, which would be phenomenal if Oda could pull it off, and I have complete faith that he could if he wanted to. I'm also hoping that this may lead to a modicum of mental growth for Luffy, I mean I do love his character the way it is, always storming in and trying to get directly to the point, but surely this defeat needs to teach him something. It doesn't have to be something radical that changes him completely, and of course I prefer it wasn't, but just some small hint of growth would be nice. What I don't want is for Luffy to regain consciousness and just immediately want to fight Kaido again, stating that he will win next time. That's boring. It also looks like Luffy lost a tooth in that very final panel of the chapter, but that's alright though, nothing a nice glass of milk won't fix. But as a result of Luffy's attack he has caught the attention of Shutenmaru, Ashura Doji. So there's definitely an option to get him more involved pretty early on, perhaps by having him rescue Luffy and flee Kaido, or perhaps Ashura could attempt to do something similar and get caught and thrown into jail with Luffy. And thinking about it this week, Luffy being imprisoned may not be such a bad thing after all. It's not something I want to see because it's a device that gets used in almost every single major arc we've had, but it would allow the rest of the Ninja Pirate Mingsamurai Alliance to accurately follow through with the plan, thanks to Luffy's absence. But a big question hanging over my head right now is whether or not lore will also try to take on Kaido. Knowing that he'll be beaten, but with the idea that if he and Luffy were both caught, then Kaido's forces would not suspect any other individuals plotting their downfall. Oh, except for Zoro actually, who remains conveniently missing after deciding to take a lovely boat ride. He'd probably also need to be captured because Hawkins Holdum and everyone else at Bakura Town is well aware of his presence. And actually, ah man, possibly even Kika as well, although she really did not make herself out to be much of a threat, but she was still seen being associated with them. In any case, I could see a situation in which Luffy is taken to prison and Zoro just ends up exactly where he's being held and possibly also being thrown into jail. That or he is able to orchestrate the breakout of Luffy, Kidd and whoever else. Although that really doesn't seem like a Zoro thing to do. Not intentionally anyway. In other news, Tama is in trouble once again, which I think would make this the fourth time she's been in a desperate situation in this arc. I mean, she was originally captured then freed by Luffy, then she had to be revived due to drinking the poisoned river water, then she was abducted by the gazelle gifted dude, bro. And now once again, this chapter, things aren't looking particularly great for her at all. There's a very vague panel where we see Tama's arm, the broken apple and what looks to be a blood splatter that does seem to be emanating from her body. I mean, wow, this girl really cannot catch a break. I highly doubt she's dead, there's just too much unsolved about her character like the dango ability and the promise she made to Ace to become a great kunoichi. I mean, then again, if she were dead, maybe she could just meet up with Ace in the afterlife and fulfill her promise there. But seriously, Oda hasn't gone to the trouble of saving this girl three times just to have her die the fourth time. And that's really kind of that for this week. It was more of an action based chapter with a singular focus, which was both highly enjoyable to read through and a little heartbreaking at the same time. The action in general was very well drawn, and it's kind of like a dream come true to finally see Kaido fighting, even if it did end so very, very swiftly. As per usual, it's left me in a state where I have absolutely no idea what's going to happen next, which is most certainly how I prefer one piece to be. So all that's really left to say is that I'm very much looking forward to the next chapter. But that pretty much does it for chapter 923. If you enjoyed this video then feel free to like, favorite or subscribe. And if you are in any way inclined to help support this independent channel, then please do feel free to check out my Patreon discord server or Twitter, the links to which are in the handy description below. And finally, please do comment with your thoughts on the chapter. This has been the Grand Line Review, and I'll see you next time.